Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* No word yet on whether James Carville will compare her to Judas: “U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, one of Washington’s 17 Democratic superdelegates, isn’t ready to shift her allegiance from Sen. Hillary Clinton to Sen. Barack Obama — yet. But in an interview with The Columbian’s editorial board Monday, she said the candidate with the most pledged delegates at the end of the primary season in late June will have the strongest claim to the party’s presidential nomination.” Cantwell said the party has to rally behind the candidate with “the most delegates and the most states,” suggesting Obama should be the nominee.
* Clinton’s former pastor was willing to do what Clinton was not: defend Jeremiah Wright.
* Earlier this month, Public Policy Polling showed Obama leading Clinton in North Carolina by just one point, 44% to 43%. PPP now shows Obama up in the state by 21 points, 55% to 34%. What happened? “It turns out that PPP changed the structure of its sample over the past week to include people who voted in the 2006 general election (last week’s only counted 2004 and 2006 primary voters). PPP’s Tom Jensen attributes ‘some’ of Obama’s jump to that decision.”
* Clinton still leads Obama comfortably in Pennsylvania, according to the latest Rasmussen poll, but the margin has slipped slightly. Two weeks ago, she led by 13 (51%-38%); now she leads by 10 (49%-39%).
* Rasmussen also shows both Dems struggling against McCain in Missouri. In hypothetical match-ups, McCain leads Clinton by 10 (50%-41%) and Obama by 15 (53%-38%).
* Clinton is poised to get a helpful hand in Philadelphia: “Emily’s List, the political action committee that works to get female candidates elected, plans to bombard women voters in the Philadelphia area with direct mailings and phone calls on behalf of Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
* I suspect this will eventually change, but as of now, Gallup shows 28% of Clinton backers preferring McCain to Obama, and 19% of Obama backers preferring McCain to Clinton.
* Nancy Reagan has endorsed McCain.
* In Indiana, probably the most competitive Democratic contest left, Obama picked up a helpful endorsement from the state’s House Majority Leader, Russ Stilwell (D).
* Apparently, if you look back far enough, Obama and Clinton are distantly related to a bunch of other famous people.
* Mike Gravel has joined the Libertarian Party. Good luck with that.